By Bruno Waterfield - 16th December 2004
No new conditions should be imposed on Turkey but Ankara should consider a “gesture” before EU entry talks begin, José Manuel Barroso has said.
The European Commission president is opposing moves by some EU capitals to tie Turkey’s EU membership bid with new strings.
But, ahead of a summit of Europe’s leaders, Barroso did indicate that Ankara’s early recognition of Cyprus would be a useful “gesture”.
“Cyprus will be sitting at the negotiating table when EU membership talks begin. So the question for Turkey is: what kind of message does it send when you do not recognise all members sitting at the table of the club you want to join?,” he said.
Cyprus has been divided into a Greek controlled south and a Turkish controlled north since Turkey invaded the island in 1974.
Ankara refuses to recognise the Greek Cypriot government in the south – a government that is an EU member.
Barroso suggests that an early move or signal from Turkey on the Cyprus question could help overcome stiff opposition to EU membership in some European countries.
“Turkey must win over the hearts and minds of everyone in Europe, there are obvious problems with public opinion in some member states,” he said.
“I think a good way of winning the battle is not to complicate negotiations but to take the initiative to tackle reservations.”
“[Turkey] should make a gesture sooner rather than later. It must go the extra mile.”
The Brussels chief rejects calls for Turkish recognition of the 1915 Armenian ‘genocide’ as a precondition for EU entry talks – but says the issue should be up for debate.
“All of this is going to have to be up for discussion… but we can not introduce new political conditions,” he said.
“Neither today or tomorrow are we going to come up with new conditions.”
EU diplomats, and Barroso, are concerned that if Europe’s heads of state and government demand too many conditions Turkey may walk away.
Calls from some national governments to impose permanent ‘safeguard clauses’ restricting Ankara’s access to EU funding or the free movement of Turkish workers are, Barroso acknowledged, “very sensitive”.
Turkey fears that such departures from full membership could see Ankara given a second class EU status.
But the commission president stresses that restrictions on Turkish workers are not necessarily to be used or to be in force on a permanent basis.
“We understand the sensitivity of the word permanent for our Turkish friends,” he said.
“When we speak about permanent safeguard clauses it does not mean that the safeguard clauses are permanent as such. It means that there is the permanent availability of using safeguard clauses.”
Turkish leader Racep Tayyip Erdogan is asking EU leaders to make good on previous pledges to treat Turkey equally.
“We have based our diplomatic understanding on honest and sincere rules until today. We have pursued our activities within this understanding,” he told journalists.
“We want an unconditional full membership and a negotiation process to start without a need for second decision. We do not want a criterion to be presented which does not exist among [previous] political criteria.”
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